Updates

In 2016 the Michelin group, one of the world’s leading buyers of natural rubber, published its sustainable natural rubber policy and committed to zero deforestation procurement: ‘By all reasonable means, the Group ensures that the natural rubber it uses comes exclusively from plantations that fully comply with the "zero deforestation" principles’. You can visit Michelin’s website to get an overview of its responsible management of the natural rubber supply chain.

A common sustainability challenge for Musim Mas and other palm oil production and trading companies is the risk that independent smallholders pose on the issue of deforestation and land conversion. For many mills it is challenging to trace back to smallholder plantation level to identify risky suppliers, because FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunch) is supplied through multiple layers of traders and collectors. It is not efficient to analyse the chain-of-custody for each mill. Most importantly, traceability has no viable impact on the ground.

Many participants recognised the potential value of certification as a tool to drive more sustainable practice in the sector as a whole, but acknowledged that few small producers are currently able to achieve certification in its current format. Bonsucro has just launched a public consultation on a draft standard and calculator for smallholders, inviting feedback through an online questionnaire. There is market pull for responsible and/or certified product from some big consumer goods companies and some general ambitions around combining efforts to reduce cost and achieve a critical mass and impact in the market. To support decent livelihoods for smallholder sugar cane farmers some delegates felt there is a need to look beyond certification.

The guidance is mainly intended for use by Group Managers, who are responsible for ensuring that members comply with all NPP requirements, and reporting to RSPO in this regard. The draft guidance document is available in six languages on the RSPO website.The intention is to streamline the process by introducing a pre-assessment to identify the cases where Groups do not need to develop a full NPP report. The two-stage process is illustrated in the form of a flow chart.